Interpretation of Score Reports by Diverse Subgroups of Parents

ABSTRACTThe degree to which diverse score users can understand and consume information presented in score reports dictates whether they are able to draw reasonable conclusions. The goal of this study was to understand how parents (a particularly understudied and heterogeneous stakeholder population) make interpretations from a hypothetical interactive score report. We used cognitive laboratories to evaluate how 35 parents from diverse educational and language proficiency backgrounds make sense of the information presented in hypothetical K-12 score reports. Results from this study demonstrate the diversity in the levels of comprehension across the assessed subgroups of parents, and highlight the need for and importance of additional support materials that can help parents understand and make sense of the information presented in score reports. Nevertheless, due to the hypothetical nature of the score report mockup evaluated and the small sample sizes, these results should be substantiated with additional ...